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Confidentiality Revisited

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Abstract

This article challenges the importance and necessity of confidentiality, which are often taken for granted, and questions whether the default promise of confidentiality to all participants, particularly in educational research, could in fact be an unnecessary concern. This article begins by reviewing the difference in the way confidentiality is handled in different fields and the applicability of some underlying assumptions. This is followed by an explanation of why confidentiality is investigated in the sense of anonymity in this article. Then the article draws on an empirical study where original researchers and their original participants were interviewed about their views on anonymity. Lastly, the contradiction between the promises of confidentiality and the recognition of a participant’s contribution is highlighted. The article concludes with a call for more empirical observation and investigation into the importance of confidentiality.

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Notes

  1. This includes question such as whether improving practice a concern in the statement of purpose and recommendations and whether participants’ potential benefits were considered.

  2. The issues investigated included accommodating the participants, the involvement/detachment decision etc.

  3. In record of the interactions of questions and responses between the participants and me, what I said was marked by starting with Y and those utterances by the participant were indicated by the first letter of their surnames.

  4. See the case description in Yu (2008).

  5. The other two research projects had not been published at the time this article was written.

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Correspondence to Ke Yu.

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Yu, K. Confidentiality Revisited. J Acad Ethics 6, 161–172 (2008). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10805-008-9061-0

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10805-008-9061-0

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